Justin Snaith runners will set a hot pace at Kenilworth Racecourse.
Justin Snaith has decreed a brisk early pace for Saturday’s WSB Cape Town Met.
South Africa’s champion trainer will give instructions for one or two of his six runners to go a good lick, ensure an “honest” pace and give his “big guns” the best chance of running on to claim victory in the R5-million, Grade 1 contest.
Those big guns would appear to be ruling favourite See It Again, defending champion Eight On Eighteen and ultra-consistent Sail The Seas.
“Okavango is in the race for a reason,” said Snaith on a tipping panel show this week, hinting strongly that his four-year-old would be the assigned hare. But another Snaith runner, Legal Counsel, a proven sprinter-miler, could also do the job.
Okavango is indeed likely to go to the front from the Met’s 2000m starting pole, jumping from the widest No 11 draw, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be a hapless sacrificial lamb – as his pillar-to-post victory in the recent Premier’s Trophy showed.
Snaith revealed that he’d experimented with Okavango setting a pace in gallops and the gelding had not been headed. A similar scenario played out in the Premier’s.
“A very interesting horse. If he’s in front, he just rolls on; and he stays all day,” observed Snaith wryly.
You couldn’t exactly call it a double-bluff, but you sense that Snaith might see Okavango as a lurking fourth “big gun” in his arsenal.
Eight On Eighteen
Snaith has also been candid about his stable superstar and ruling Equus Horse of the Year, Eight On Eighteen.
“His prep hasn’t been perfect,” Snaith said.
“He contracted biliary; a nasty case. That meant he didn’t have the right prep run. He has recovered well, though.”
Eight On Eighteen finished a disappointing eighth in the recent King’s Plate. That run over a trip short of his best would have brought him on, but niggling doubts over his fitness have seen the colt ease from early ante-post favouritism to be supplanted at the top of betting boards by See It Again.
If the champion is unable to reproduce his devastating finishing effort of last year, a gate could swing open for stablemates See It Again and Sail The Seas to swoop on Okavango.
The major threat to the domination of Snaith Racing is Dean Kannemeyer’s hero The Real Prince. The winner of the 2200m Hollywoodbets Durban July and the 1600m L’Ormarins King’s Plate is obviously an animal to be reckoned with – especially with in-form jockey Craig Zackey aboard.
Snaith has been very critical of the slow pace at which the July was run and will be hoping his speed demons can draw the sting from The Real Prince.
The 2026 Met is a very strong race that calls for a worthy winner. Any one of the above candidates would fit the bill.
Potential upset material: Gladatorian, The Equator and Garrix.
SELECTION
10 See It Again, 3 Sail The Seas, 6 The Real Prince, 11 Okavango
